SpaceClaim Online Help

Creating mirror relationships

Use the MirrorAssociative relationship between two faces or planes mirrored about a centerline plane or planar face. The second object is a copy of the original; if the geometry of the original is changed, the mirrored copy is also updated. Use the Mirror tool to designate a face or plane as a mirror, or to create a mirror plane between two faces. tool in the Insert ribbon group on the Design2D or 3D model that contains at least one top-level component. tab to mirror any geometry that can be moved with the MoveA tool used to translate or rotate geometry. tool. You can insert a mirror plane between two faces, associating the faces so you can edit them together. You can copy a solid, surface, face, or curve from one side of a mirror plane to the other.

You can mirror curves, points, and axes without leaving sketch mode or cross section mode. When you mirror a curve, changing its geometry does not propagate to the other side.

You can mirror solids that contain patterns of features on a face, and the pattern will be updated on both sides. The pattern must be created before the solid is mirrored.

The plane becomes a persistent mirror once you create geometry using the mirror. The mirror relationship is maintained when you use other 2D and 3D tools to edit your design.

Mirrored components have a mirrored icon in the Structure Tree and maintain their mirror relationships when they are exported.

Mirrored objects are created on the same layer as the original object. Mirrored points do not maintain their mirror relationship.

To mirror an object

1. (Optional) Create the plane you want to use as a mirror using the Insert Plane tool and position it with the Move tool.

2. Click Mirror in the Create group.

   The Select Mirror PlaneConstruction geometry consisting of a flat surface. Planes can be used for a 2D sketch, section view of a model, a neutral plane in a draft feature. tool guide is enabled.

3. Click the plane to use as a mirror.

4. Click the Mirror BodyA solid or surface. or Mirror FaceSide or other surface of a solid. Some examples are the inside surface of a hole or the six sides of a rectangular solid. See Surface. tool guide.

5. Mouse over the solids or faces in your design to preview the solid, surface, or face that will be created on the other side of the selected mirror plane.

6. Click the object you want to mirror.

7. The mirror plane is created and will persist in other tools.

   You can click objects in your design or click a component in the Structure treeDisplay in the Structure panel that shows you each of the objects in your design. You can expand or collapse the nodes of the tree to view the objects. You can rename objects, create, modify, replace, and delete objects, as well as work with components..

If you enclose a volume by mirroring faces, a solid is created.

To remove a mirror face or plane

1. Click Mirror in the Create group.

   The Select Mirror Plane tool guide is enabled.

2. Click the Remove Mirror tool guide.

3. Click the face from which you want to remove the mirror relationship. You can also Box-select any number of faces.

   You can temporarily disable a plane in any tool. Select a mirrored face to display the mirror plane, then click the mirror icon to disable the mirror. Click the mirror icon again to enable the mirror.

Options

• Merge mirrored objects: When you use a face as the mirror plane, or when the mirror plane lies on a face of the source object, the two mirrored objects will be merged. Deselect this option to make a new object, as shown below.

  

• Create mirror relationships: If you deselect this option, only the geometry is created and not the mirror relationship. Changes to either object will not be reflected in the other, as shown below.

  

You can create a mirror plane between two symmetrical faces in your design.

To set up a mirror relationship

1. Click the Mirror tool in the Create ribbon group.

2. Click the Setup Mirror tool guide.

   As you mouse over the faces in your design, the eligible faces are highlighted. A face is eligible if it is symmetrical to another face in your design.

3. Click a face.

4. Click a parallel face.

   The second face is highlighted in blue and the mirror plane appears halfway between the two faces. Edits to one face will now be mirrored on the other face. Geometry in between the two faces will be updated accordingly.

You can create mirror relationships by finding similar faces on the other side of an existing mirror.

To find similar faces on the other side of a mirror

1. Click the Setup Mirror tool guide.

2. Click a face.

   Ctrl+click to select multiple faces.

3. Alt+click a mirror plane.

   Identical faces equidistant from the mirror plane are highlighted in blue, and a mirror relationship is created.

Tool guides

The following tool guides help step you through the process. Use the Tab key to cycle through them. As soon as the tool guide switches, the cursor may change to reflect the active guide.

Examples

A mirrored solid with a pattern of features is updated when the count is changed from 7 to 5 on one side.

Mirroring a sketched circle. Modifying the circle does not change the geometry of the mirrored circle.

Mirror associations are maintained in the PullTool used to distort or deform geometry. Use the Pull tool to offset, extrude, revolve, sweep, draft, and blend faces; or to round, chamfer, or extrude edges. When converting a sketch to 3D, pulling a line creates a surface and pulling a surface creates a solid. tool using the Copy Edge3D object composed of a single outside boundary of a feature. A line sketched in 2D becomes an edge when you pull your sketch into 3D. and ExtrudeTo pull a face along with its edges. The edges extend to bound the extruded face, creating a new section defined by the edges. Edge options. The behavior for Copy Edge is on the left and Extrude Edge is on the right.